Letter to Francis Towne

I had this moment the pleasure of receiving your letter and take the earliest opportunity to answer it - Whatever pictures you send to me shall be treated with as much care and attention as is possible - & I shall be happy to see you in London - I look forward to the prospect with pleasure.1

I am much flattered by your favourable sentiments of me: they would be more grateful to me still if I could persuade myself that I deserved them - remember me to my old Friends Jackson & White2 tell the latter of these gentlemen I have received his Letter & will send him his portrait in a very little time - I remain with great regard - Dr Sr Yr most faithful Friend etc

Footnotes

1
Possibly these are the pictures that Towne intended to exhibit in the forthcoming Royal Academy exhibition, to which Richard Cosway refers in his letter dated 15 March 1779

2
William Jackson (1730-1803), musician, and James White (1745-1825), counsellor of Exeter and Towne's executor. For Jackson see FT892; for White see FT746.

3Fore Street, Exeter, was the city's principal road and the site of the main commercial activities. Towne's presence there may indicate that his prosperity had grown since the letter from William Pars, when Towne was lodging in Stepcote Hill.